Our PLASYS24 focus

The Intergovernmental Negotiations Committee (INC) progresses towards an internationally legally binding instrument – often referred to as ‘Plastics Treaty’ to end plastic pollution. An effective treaty will have details informed in Annexes and even after an agreement the challenge of practical implementation will be major. Strategies, policies, action plans, monitoring and reporting mechanisms will be needed – but plastics pollution is multifaceted and equally complex to climate change, while science and engineering are still young. It is imperative that the policy is informed by the best science; and that the scientific advances rapidly find their way in these formative months and years for the decades to come.

At PLASYS24 we aspire to enable and accelerate the interaction needed to optimally inform the science policy interface, including measuring the right indicators, formulating emission inventories, national and local action plan, and source inventories, along with monitoring provisions. The effectiveness of early policies such as plastics bags bans is now assessed and more nuances approaches than just bans are sought altogether – for example, you cannot just ban open uncontrolled burning to prevent it from happening. The interplay of plastic related policies with the wider nexus of the triple planetary crisis (climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution) poses a fine challenge on its own.